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cattle

Pronunciation: /ˈkætəl/

The English word “cattle” has 5 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Domesticated animals of the species Bos taurus (cows, bulls, steers, oxen etc), and other hoofed mammals of the genus Bos.
  2. Certain other livestock, such as sheep, pigs or goats. Also rarely applied to horses.
  3. People who resemble domesticated bovine animals in behavior or destiny.
  4. chattel
  5. Used in restricted contexts to refer to the meat derived from cattle.

Etymology

From Middle English catel, from Anglo-Norman catel (“personal property”), from Old Northern French (compare French cheptel, Old French chetel, chatel, also English chattel) from Medieval Latin capitāle, from Latin capitālis (“of the head”) (whence also capital, from caput (“head”) + -alis (“-al”)). For the sense evolution, compare pecuniary and fee. Also compare Russian поголо́вье (pogolóvʹje,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.